Apple versus Microsoft: The war rages on!

 
Growing up, I was aware of the Apple versus Microsoft wars that have been raging since the beginning of personal computing. There are many advantages to buying a Windows machine if you’re a gamer and want to build your own nerd tower of if you’re large company that needs to supply its workers with easy to repair/replace machines. I get it. I was a Windows user until college, when graphic arts school compelled me to purchase a Macbook Pro, for which I paid a hefty $2,500 (at least a student license of Creative Suite was included in that price). I’ve never been happier. There are some problems with OSX I sometimes have a conniption fit over and I sometimes miss the task bar and not having to sort through multiple open windows, but I’ll probably never buy a non-Apple laptop just due to the superior track pad tech. As someone who also knows their way around the guts of a computer, Apple’s trend towards throwing everything in a small space that requires the magical guidance of a “genius” at the “genius bar” drives me up a wall because of their service charges for basic things like installing RAM and swapping hard drives. It’s an obvious scheme to give Scrooge McDuck an even deeper golden coin pool to swim in and keep the average consumer in the dark (I’m a HUGE fan of teaching a man to fish when it comes to technology). Whatever…I’ll just buy used Apple hardware for cheaper on the dollar.
That seemed more like an Apple slam, but remember that expensive Macbook Pro I bought in 2007? The thing is still running today (and it is running Lion!) after multiple falls onto hard surfaces and years of being my main computer. It got me through 5 years of college, including 3 years of heavy use in graphic design classes. It’s been retired now due to a beer spill killing the k, I, 8 keys on the keyboard, but it’s still my backup if I ever have problems with my iMac. It will never die, but she will be phased out of support. I don’t care, that laptop and I have had great memories together and I’m rather way too attached to a piece of machinery to let it go. It’s a stark contrast from my previous PC towers that started to go kablooey around age 3.
I’ve phased most Microsoft software out of my life in favor of open source applications like OpenOffice, but there is one plug-in I must absolutely use and loathe to use and that’s Silverlight. Silverlight is used by Netflix to run their streaming videos and I absolutely hate installing and using it. Oh Silverlight, why do you crash almost every other day without any notice or care? Every crash reminds me of why I left the Windows world. It also reminds me of the piece of horribleness that is Internet Explorer 8 and below. What is it with you and your non-compliance? Why, as a company, did you, the largest software company, decide to buck following W3C standards and WebKit? Safari is fairly bloated as well, because it seems like Apple has trouble writing their own user apps without bloat (hello iTunes!), but at least it uses WebKit. But things seem to be turning around in the Microsoft world. It must have been their loss in the mobile department, since Android and iOS have been reigning, bickering kings for a while now. Time will tell, but I’m still going to hold tight to my overpriced hardware.